When terror threatens, 'not talking' is an option: BJP

February 14, 2010 15:15 IST

Rejecting Union Home Minister P Chidambaram's claim that Pune blast was not an intelligence failure, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday asked the government not go head with 'misconceived and adventurist steps' like resuming dialogue with Pakistan and rehabilitating militants returning from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

The BJP core group held a meeting in New Delhi on Sunday to discuss the blast in a German bakery in Pune on Saturday evening in which nine persons were killed. It said the government must introspect whether the intelligence collection and security responses are still inadequate.

"The government in the past few days has announced some misconceived and adventurist steps... The BJP urges the government to reconsider both these steps -- allowing persons from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir to return and resuming dialogue with Pakistan," Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley said.

BJP has opposed the recent Indian initiative to begin Foreign Secretary-level talks with Pakistan and accused the government of doing a U-turn though "nothing had changed" in the neighbour's attitude post-26/11.

"As long as the terror infrastructure in Pakistan is not dismantled and Pakistan does not stop sponsoring terror from its soil, composite dialogue should not resume," Jaitley said.

He criticised the UPA government for not taking the "nation, Parliament or even the Congress" into confidence before deciding on resumption of dialogue.